The Frustration of Flynn Rider
by Mandarin Fiend
Summary: Life has never been so frustrating or ridiculous for Flynn Rider. First, he gets coerced (at gunpoint) into helping two thugs find the long lost treasure of Corona, and then the treasure turns out to be a very naive girl who should have died 100 years ago. Most frustrating of all is her complete trust and faith in him. AU.
1. Coerced

**Chapter 1 – Coerced**

It's amazing the things people will do with a gun pointed at their head. Flynn Rider, at that very moment, had a gun pointed at his head by a huge burly man who probably didn't even need the gun to kill him. And because one huge burly man wasn't enough, there was another, his twin, a short distance away with a huge knife in his hand.

"Come on guys, I showed you where it is, is it really necessary for me to go in?"

"Yes,"

"It is," they replied. The Stabbington Brothers were ruthless criminals, both with ginger hair, and a motley assortment of scars which provided the only way of telling one from the other. They spoke slowly in deep voices, which they often used to finish off each other's sentences with eerie precision.

The one with the gun threw Flynn a length of rope.

"Tie it around your waist,"

"-And we'll lower you down," they ordered.

"How about we tie a camera to the end of the rope and lower that down? I mean, this could be a waste of time and energy for you guys if there's nothing down there…"

"You saying you led us to the wrong place Rider?" the brother with the gun cocked it menacingly.

"No, no, no of course not. What I meant to say was, maybe we should come back at a time that isn't the middle of the night. I mean, how will I even be able to see anything?" amended Flynn quickly with a nervous laugh. One of the brothers threw him a flashlight.

"That's how you'll see."

"Oh great. I'm so glad one of you had the foresight to bring a flashlight. Quick question, what if there are giant insects down there? You see, I have a phobia of giant insects, they paralyze me with fear, and if I can't move I won't be able to reach the treasure so maybe it'd be better if one of you guys went down to scope the place out and then-"

"Shut up-"

"-And stop stalling."

"Alright, alright. Just saying, I _am_ the talent of this operation, and normally I get paid for this sort of thing, not forced at gun point. If my work isn't up to its usual standard, you know why."

"Just tie the rope."

Flynn did as he was told and double knotted the rope around his waist.

They were in the middle of a forest. The trees there grew so thickly that the forest floor was heavily gnarled with roots, and not much moonlight made it through. The trees themselves were immense sequoia trees. They loomed like still, silent, giants.

It had taken them two hours driving from the city, and then half a day worth of hiking and plunging waist deep through rivers to arrive in that spot. Flynn could still feel water sloshing around in his boots.

Before them was a gaping chasm, a few meters across. Some time ago a tree had fallen, leaving behind a gap that let moonlight in through the thick canopy. Flynn could hear the rushing sound of the river nearby.

The hole in the ground before them supposedly contained what the Stabbington Brothers were so desperate to find, the lost treasure of the fallen Kingdom of Corona. The location had been calculated by an old archaeologist, the instructions on how to get there were encrypted.

That was where Flynn had come in. Decoding the instructions and reading the map.

"Go on-"

"Jump." Urged the brothers.

"Yeah, yeah. Give me a second." Flynn took a deep breath, and then he was unceremoniously shoved into the hole from behind.

"_Oh Shi_- ... Arrhhhh!" he fell into the darkness for a few moments, until the slack was gone and he was suspended in the middle of blackness. He turned on the flashlight and peered around.

"Well Rider?"

"What do you see?"

There were wooden beams around him, covered in spider webs. This used to be a building of some sort, and he was in what used to be the ceiling.

"Nothing much yet!" Flynn called back.

They lowered him slowly and he avoided the wooden beams, but it was impossible to miss the cobwebs and he got a face-full.

"Gross." Flynn muttered, wiping the dusty threads away as best as he could with his forearm.

Suddenly, the floor came into view. Flynn gingerly pressed a foot against the ground to check its stability. It seemed fine, so he untied himself and stood.

It was very very dusty. The air was musty and stale.

Flynn could make out two small orange dots far above him, and beyond that, tiny pinpricks of light that were stars in the night sky. They didn't afford him much light down here.

He slowly turned in a circle, peering into the darkness with the aid of the flashlight.

There was a very dated sort of cooking apparatus in an alcove in one wall, a bookcase, and then a set of steps leading up to a doorway. A large fire place was set in one wall with an ornate chair angled towards it. Flynn couldn't tell what color it was through the layer of dust that covered it.

Flynn spotted a small table, and decided that was good a place as any to start his search.

He had to blow a bit so he could he could see what was under the layer of dust. The table was covered in knick-knacks, but nothing of real value. A basket of half-finished knitting, half a dozen candles, a box of paints, a partly done puzzle, and a chess set with most of the pieces scattered all over the table as if someone had thrown a hissy fit. From the corner of his eye Flynn caught something glittering on the ground on the other side of the table. Treasure?

No, it was a skeleton. Dead bodies didn't faze Flynn Rider in the slightest. He'd had come across quite a few corpses in his line of work. He crouched down next to it to get a better look.

It was wearing a very old fashioned red velvet dress underneath a long black cloak, and it still had curly dark hair clinging to its skull. It was slumped over, clutching a glittering jewellery box in its bony hand.

It took a bit of effort, but Flynn managed to pry the thing free. He polished it off with a bit of his sleeve. It was round, with an elaborate golden flower painted on the lid. It was pretty, but not worth very much. (Flynn had an eye for these things.)

He opened it, and was disappointed to see no jewellery. His earlier assumption was wrong; it was actually a music box. A miniature ballerina popped up, and started twirling around to a slow sad tune.

Flynn popped the thing shut and shoved it in his breast pocket.

He took a step, and found himself tripping over something.

"What the..." he shined the torch downwards, and saw something gold. Treasure?

He bent down to get a closer look. He grabbed a handful of the stuff. The texture was smooth and silky.

"Is this... _hair_?" he said aloud.

It was. Golden, human, hair.

Hair probably meant that there was another body nearby.

Flynn followed the golden mass with the light of the torch, but it seemed never ending. Who had hair that long? Maybe it was fashionable to have crazy long hair in Corona a hundred years ago.

It looped around the room, crossing over itself. The room seemed to be filled with it, and Flynn was at a loss as to how he hadn't noticed it earlier. It eventually led up the stairs, and through the doorway. There was something oddly disturbing about it. It made Flynn think of giant golden snakes coming down here to shed their skin.

Flynn stepped over the coils of hair, careful not to trip up again, and made his way up the stairs. With every step he took, he felt an impending sense of doom.

"Man up Flynn. _Hair_ is hardly the scariest thing you've ever come across." He muttered to himself.

He pushed the door open and shined the torch in. There was a four poster bed with drapes in the middle of the room. The hair disappeared into the dark folds. He could make out the silhouette of something that looked body-shaped.

He shuffled further in, and found himself tip-toeing for some strange reason. It was silly, not like he could wake the dead.

Flynn pushed aside one of the drapes carefully, and shined the flashlight downwards. He nearly dropped it when he saw what was there.

It was a young girl, curled up on her side. She looked as if she could be sleeping, but she was perfectly still. She wasn't breathing: there was no rise and fall of her chest.

Flynn didn't move for a moment, and neither did the girl.

Frowning, Flynn leaned in a bit closer. She had freckles splashed across the bridge of her nose, and long eyelashes. What was she doing here? Did she fall down here, and curl up on the bed to die?

If she was dead, it had to be recent. _Very_ recent. Decomposition happened rapidly. One of her hands was clutched around the handle of a fancy looking hair brush. Flynn reached out to pry her fingers off it, he wanted a closer look at it, but he recoiled in shock when his hand brushed against her skin.

She was _warm._ Her skin was _soft_. As a rule, dead bodies were cold and clammy and stiff.

Suddenly he noticed a few other things about her that he'd failed to notice earlier. Her dress was grey with age and even more ridiculously old fashioned than the dress on the other corpse. Dust had settled onto her hair, and there were even little clumps stuck to her eyelashes.

Flynn took a panicked step backwards, and the momentum caused the music box to fall out of his pocket. It bounced once, and sprang open. A haunting melody filled the room.

Flynn bent slowly to retrieve the music box, keeping one eye on the girl warily.

Then suddenly light burst forth, something on the bed was shining like the sun. Flynn was too shocked to move. The light was traveling fast down the length of the hair. As it streaked past him, Flynn broke out of his trance.

He sprinted out of the room as fast as he could, but not faster than the light of the hair, which illuminated the main chamber fully now.

Flynn could now see that tree roots had grown into the building, warping the shape of the chamber.

The walls were covered in paintings that had obviously once been very colourful, but were now faded with age. Swirling patterns, dancing people, birds in flight, flowers, and a plethora of other things were haphazardly splashed all over the place. They should have been beautiful, but instead they looked sinisterly misshapen through the layers of dust, and the long shadows cast by the light of the glowing hair.

Flynn grabbed the rope still hanging through the hole and clumsily tied it around his waist.

"Get me out of here!" he yelled.

"Do you have the treasure?!" one of the brothers called back.

"No! There's nothing down here!" Flynn screamed back. He let out a very unmanly yelp as the hair started to shift across the room, getting pulled up the stairs through the open door.

"What's that light down there?"

Flynn cursed loudly.

"_JUST PULL ME UP!_" He let out a sigh of relief as he was hoisted into the air. As he moved closer to the hole, the light from the hair faded bit by bit until below was blackness once again, but he could still hear the sound of hair sliding around the room.

There wasn't much that could frightened Flynn Rider, but the sleeping girl, and her sliding, glowing hair were too creepy for words.

As soon as he could reach the edge of the hole, Flynn grabbed on and scrambled out back on to land.

"What's down there Rider?" demanded one of the brothers.

"There was the dead body of a woman, and you're not going to believe this, like 70 feet of hair and then-"

"The treasure?" interrupted one of the brothers. Flynn mentally scolded himself. He'd been babbling out of panic. Flynn Rider did not panic. Flynn swallowed his words and decided that he wouldn't tell them about the girl. Let them see for themselves.

"I found this." said Flynn with forced calm. He presented them with the music box. One of the brothers snatched it off him, eying it greedily.

"See the golden brocade? And the detailing on that flower? It's in very good condition, all things considered. It's an early representation of the golden magic sun flower of Old Corona. Collectors would pay an arm and a leg for a piece like this, you could probably get 5000 crowns for it, at least." lied Flynn smoothly. The music box didn't even have any brocade on it but Flynn was certain that the Stabbington brothers wouldn't know brocade from stripes, and it sounded good to throw in.

The other brother pointed his knife at Flynn's face.

"You better not be messing with us. You saying there was nothing else down there?"

"Would I lie to you?" they just looked at him.

"I'm hurt." said Flynn sarcastically.

"We'll come back tomorrow to do a more thorough search."

"_Thank god_." said Flynn emphatically. Hopefully he'd be able to give them the slip in the night, and then the dark hole filled with slithering golden hair could become a suppressed memory…

Suddenly the Brothers smiled at him. Flynn cringed. Somehow they looked even more lethal when smiling.

"No Rider, us two, we'll be back tomorrow,"

"You'll be spending the night in the hole."

"What!? No way! Guys, listen to me, there is something _else_ down there! The hair I told you about, it was _moving_ when you pulled me back up-" calm Flynn was gone.

"Enough of your excuses Rider."

"You're spending the night down there so you don't get any ideas about running off with that treasure without us."

"No seriously! Listen to me, something down there isn't right-"

"Don't be such a pussy-"

"I'm not a pussy!"

"In you go."

Flynn was seized by the scruff of his collar and thrown in the hole once again. This time he was left free falling until he was a meter from the ground. The brothers slowed his decent just enough so that he wouldn't be permanently damaged, but his collision with various beams on the way down, and then the floor, still hurt.

"Sweet dreams Rider!"

And that was the last thing Flynn heard, before something hit him in the head and everything faded into blackness.

**Well hello there!**

This is the first time I've written anything for Tangled. I've had this chapter/idea in my head for a while now and today I decided to just post it and see what happens...

**Please let me know any thoughts/ideas/criticisms/questions you may have.**

**Thanks :)**


	2. In the Dark

**Chapter 2 –In the dark**

When he came to, Flynn was disorientated for a moment. His head was pounding, and he felt like he'd taken a beating. Then he remembered where he was. He let out a yelp, and tried to move, only to find he couldn't. He was tied to the chair in front of the fireplace by golden hair.

Flynn fought his restraints wildly, but they wouldn't budge. Around him someone had placed three candles in a circle. He couldn't see beyond the light they cast.

That feeling of doom crashed over him again, and he slumped down in his seat. He'd never expected to live for very long, (he was far too handsome and dashing to age) and he supposed he'd had a good run, but he just wished his end was a bit more exciting and tragic.

Dying alone in a dark hole tied up with golden hair wasn't glamorous or memorable at all. Flynn just hoped it would be quick.

He was interrupted from his musings when a high voice rang out, trembling slightly,

"R-resistance is futile."

"What?" Flynn squinted into the darkness.

Something was moving closer to him from the shadows.

"I-I know why you're here, and I'm not afraid of you!" Her accent was strange, it lilted as though she was singing, and her vowels sounded soft somehow.

"What did you do to my tower?"

The young girl stepped into the light. She was slight, with expressive green eyes. Her feet were bare, and she had an old frying pan clutched in one hand.

As Flynn's eyes took her in, that feeling of doom lifted. He could see the frying pan shaking in her grip. This little girl wasn't going to kill him. Of that much, he was certain.

He'd been expecting a zombie monster, or some kind of she-demon. He almost laughed in relief.

"How did a pretty little thing like you end up down here?" asked Flynn with a casual grin, tilting his head forward in a way that he knew made him look endearing and nonthreatening.

"I'll ask the questions," she seemed to be gaining confidence, "Who are you? What did you do to my tower?" she pointed her frying pan at him. Her eyes were very serious, she meant business.

Flynn paused for a moment, considering her strange question.

"Who are you and what did you do to my tower?" she repeated with a slight edge in her voice.

Flynn cleared his throat,

"My name is Flynn, Flynn Rider." he said with a flourish. He flashed her his most winning smile,

"Now that we have that misunderstanding cleared up, perhaps you could untie me-"

"What did you do to my tower?"

"I'm going to need some clarification. What tower are we talking about exactly?"

"The tower we're in right now! This tower! What did you do to it! Why does it look so… so… different?!"

"We aren't in a tower, we're in a hole in the ground, and I don't know what your tower looked like before so I can't really say how different it is-"

"Are you here for my hair? Do you want to cut it?" she paced around him, brandishing the frying pan at him.

"What?"

"Or sell it?"

"Why on earth would I sell your hair? Who the heck would I even sell it to!? Why would anyone want to buy it!? The only thing I want to do with your hair is get out of it! Literally!"

She looked at him skeptically with narrowed eyes.

"This is getting ridiculous. Look Blondie-"

"My name is Rapunzel."

"That's great. I was forced down here at gunpoint. I don't want to be down here. End of story."

"You ... You don't want my hair?" she looked genuinely confused.

"No! It's cool, but mostly creepy that it glows, and what use could I possibly have for glowing hair anyway?" replied Flynn, equally confused. Rapunzel took a step closer to him, staring at him with wide innocent eyes.

"You're telling the truth?"

"_Yes_." said Flynn sincerely

Rapunzel was starting to look unsure of herself.

"Can you untie me now?" asked Flynn hopefully.

"How do I know you won't hurt me?"

"I'm offended! Flynn Rider would never hurt a woman!"

"I guess your teeth aren't pointy..." she mumbled under her breath.

"What? Why would my teeth be pointy?"

"Why did you say that we're in a hole before?" said Rapunzel, blatantly ignoring what he said.

"Is that a trick question?" her serious expression didn't change.

"I said we're in a hole, because we're in a hole. See the sky up there? That's the hole I came in through and that's the only way out."

"What?" Rapunzel looked completely lost.

"Look, can you just untie me? In the morning two big scary men are coming back and I want to be long gone from here by then-"

"You still haven't explained what happened to my tower. Why it looks so … old and dirty."

"This. Isn't. A. Tower." said Flynn slowly, enunciating each word pointedly. Rapunzel pursed her lips.

"Let's just say for argument sake the last thing I remember is being inside a tower, whose interior looked exactly like this room we're in, except clean and bright. What happened?" she asked with forced calm.

"As far as I know this place has probably been buried since the Kingdom of Corona fell."

"What happened to the Kingdom of Corona?"

"There was a volcanic eruption and a whole bunch of Earthquakes. That's the risk you run when you build your entire kingdom on a volcanic island located on an active plate margin. Not that they knew that back then…" Rapunzel started pacing frantically.

"So… can you untie me now?" called Flynn. She ignored him, and started pulling at a lock of her hair anxiously.

"T-the last thing I remember is that snow was falling on my birthday. Then the tower started to shake, there were terrible noises, and then nothing…"

"Are you sure you didn't just fall down the hole?" asked Flynn. Corona fell close to a hundred years ago; no way she was around back then… Right?

A little voice in Flynn's head helpfully reminded him that hair wasn't supposed to glow either. He decided to ignore it because he didn't want to complicate things any further.

"No, I didn't fall in." she said shaking her head.

"Well, right now we should leave your '_tower'_ because if we don't go before the Stabbington brothers come back it won't be pretty."

"Who are they?" asked Rapunzel curiously.

"The guys who pushed me down here." Rapunzel looked up at the hole, and then back down at Flynn.

"You fell that far? Why did they push you?" she asked, clearly horrified.

"They think that there's treasure down here. They put me here so I couldn't run off with it myself."

"But there isn't any treasure down here..."

"_I_ _know!_ That's what I told them!"

"That's really far up." said Rapunzel thoughtfully, looking up at the hole once more. "How are you planning on getting up there?" she asked.

Flynn shrugged.

"I'm agile. I'll find a way. So, can you untie me now?"

"You know, I could get us out of here." replied Rapunzel casually, examining her nails. Flynn raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?"

"Yup." she popped the p.

"Can you untie me too?"

"I have a proposition for you," she went back to pacing around his chair again. At least this time the frying pan wasn't being pointed at his face.

"Well I won't consider anything until you untie me." said Flynn stubbornly. Rapunzel ignored him. She was good at that.

"I'll help you get out of here, if you help me once we're outside."

"Help you what?" said Flynn grumpily.

"I can't stay here, and I've never been outside before. You obviously have some life experience. You are to show me around and help me fit in! If you promise to do that, I'll get you out of here and away from those men you're afraid of."

"Alright Goldie, let's get a few things straight. Firstly, I'm not afraid of the Stabbington Brothers, it's just plain smart to avoid men who point guns and knives at you. Secondly, you don't want me to show you around outside."

"Why not?"

"I'm someone that a proper young lady like yourself should avoid. I'm trouble."

"But, why?"

"Let's just say that I chew girls up and spit them out." Rapunzel pointed her frying pan at him so fast that Flynn gave himself whiplash to avoid getting hit in the face.

"Y-you're a cannibal!" she squeaked.

"_What?_ Are you _crazy!?_ That's_ disgusting!_ Of course not! That isn't what I meant-"

"Then what did you mean?" Flynn sighed. Did he really need to spell it out for her?

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm blessed with super human good looks," Rapunzel lowered the frying pan a little, and stared at him quizzically.

"For example, look at my hair. It just looks like this all the time; I don't need to do anything to it. I even fall fifty feet, and it still looks perfect." Rapunzel eyed his hair, frowning slightly.

"I don't understand what that has to do with anything." stated Rapunzel, clearly unimpressed. Flynn sighed.

"Look, I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice... Here comes the smoulder."

A moment later Flynn came to the conclusion that Rapunzel was either severely short-sighted, had a heart made of stone, or an extremely good poker face. Her unimpressed look didn't change in the slightest.

"This is kind of an off day for me, this doesn't usually happen..." he muttered sheepishly.

"It'll probably be morning soon, so what'll it be? Are we waiting for the Scary brothers to come back, or are we leaving?" she folded her arms across her chest and stared at him determinedly.

"It's the _Stabbington _brothers. Besides, who says I need your help to get out of this hole? I can climb out myself!"

"True, but there isn't much you can do while you're tied up," said Rapunzel sweetly.

Flynn just glared at her for a moment. He decided to try another approach.

"You know those men that are coming back in the morning? If you don't let me go they're probably going to kill me. Do you really want my death on your conscious?" he hit her with the saddest most pathetic look he could muster. It felt very unnatural to the muscles in his face.

"T-they're going to kill you? Why?!" her eyes went all wide, and she bit her lip.

"They just don't like me."

"Is that what people do out there? Kill someone when they don't like them?" she asked fearfully.

"Sometimes." replied Flynn nonchalantly. She went back to pulling at a lock of her hair anxiously.

"W-will they kill me too?" Privately Flynn thought they'd likely do worse, she really was very pretty.

"Probably." She looked so frightened that Flynn almost felt bad. Almost.

"Why can't I come with you?" she asked.

"My lifestyle outside of this hole isn't really very tag-along friendly."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a very active person and I move around a lot. You'd be better off finding someone else." _Anyone else_, Flynn added in his head. Flynn Rider worked _alone._

"But… you're the only person I've ever met." said Rapunzel in a small voice.

"No. No way. I can't be the only person you've ever met. That's impossible." replied Flynn, shaking his head. That would just be too tragic.

"Well I know my mother…"

"Then you should go find her, and let me go."

"She's usually here in the tower with me, and I already checked her room. I don't have a clue where to even start looking for her." She looked so sad, so forlorn.

Suddenly Flynn had a horrifying mental image of the Stabbington brothers coming back in the morning to find him gone, and Rapunzel here in his stead.

The words came out of his mouth without him really thinking about it.

"Okay, fine! I don't want you hanging around with me indefinitely, you'll cramp my style, but I'll escort you to the nearest town."

"Really? Do you promise?" her green eyes bored into his for a moment, and Flynn was suddenly struck with the realization that this girl was so tiny, so breakable, and so very trusting to rely on the promise of a stranger.

"I promise." said Flynn, against his better judgment. Funnily enough he found that he actually meant it.

Rapunzel perked up at that, her whole face breaking into a radiant smile. It almost made Flynn forget himself for a moment and smile back. Almost.

"I've never been to a town before…" she muttered under her breath to herself as she started to untangled him from her hair. It took a while to unwind it all, but eventually they got there, and he was able to move again. Rapunzel looked even smaller next to him now that he was standing.

"Thank you for finally untying me." He said sarcastically as he stretched. It felt wonderful.

"Well, it's time for you to own up to your part of the deal. How are you getting us out of here?" he turned back to see that Rapunzel was no longer standing next to him.

She was walking towards the table with a candle held above her head. The table that had the dead woman beside it.

"Woah! Hold up for a second Blondie!" Flynn called after her. She paused and looked back at him, one hand on her hip.

"Gosh Flynn, relax. I'm just going to leave a note on the table in case mother comes back, and then I'll get us out of here,"

"No, that's not it. You see, when I got pushed down here, I stumbled across something that wasn't..." the words stuck in Flynn's throat. He paused for a moment to think of a way to put it delicately…

"Something that wasn't what?" pressed Rapunzel, her eyes all wide and questioning. Flynn could just tell she wouldn't take this well.

"Look, just try not to freak out, okay? I found something, and it wasn't … well _they_ weren't _alive_..." Flynn wasn't disappointed by her reaction. Rapunzel's face turned ashen, one of her hands tangled in her hair by her forehead. Her whole body shook as she dragged in gasping breaths.

"Hey, I said not to freak out!" Flynn moved around her, so he was between her and the table/corpse, and put his hands on her shoulders to steady her.

"You can leave your note somewhere else, okay? And then we'll get out of here." She didn't respond. Her eyes were vacant, she wasn't with him. She was lost somewhere in her own head.

"Hey… Hey!" Flynn shook her a little, and snapped his fingers in front of her face, "Let's work on getting out of here. Don't think about the body, the dead can't hurt you."

Rapunzel's eyes finally focused on his face, and turned wild.

"Where is she?" she said. The way she said it sent chills down Flynn's spine.

"Who? The body?"

"_Where?_"

"Beside the table…"

Rapunzel pushed past him and ran off straight towards the table. That wasn't the reaction Flynn was expecting.

"It's not a pretty sight! I wouldn't go over there if I were you!" Flynn called after her. She ignored him.

"What about getting us out of here!" he yelled, waving his arms in exasperation. She ignored him again. Flynn cursed under his breath, and resolved to find a way out himself.

He found the flashlight on the floor by the length of rope the Stabbington Brothers threw in after him.

He switched it on and squinted into the darkness. He managed to make out all the ceiling beams he hit on the fall down, and above that, earthy looking walls.

Maybe he if he could find two largish knives, he could sort of wall-climb out?

He picked his way across the chamber towards the archaic oven. He figured that alcove had probably been the kitchen, and was therefore his best bet.

He heard rustling from the direction of the table, and soon quiet sobs followed. They echoed around the room and cut straight through Flynn's concentration.

As a rule, he avoided crying women like the plague. There was nowhere he could get away from it down here. He steeled himself to ignore it, and went back to his knife search.

A face-full of dust and cobwebs later, Flynn had a rusty old butter knife and a half a dozen teaspoons. No way they would support his weight.

Suddenly Flynn heard singing coming from the corner. Rapunzel's voice was as pretty as she was, even though it was shaking a little.

_"Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine,"_

Light filled the chamber as it did before, running swiftly down the length of the hair. Flynn recognized the tune, but he couldn't place from where. He was too busy being gob smacked all over again by the undeniable fact that the hair glowed. It absurdity of the whole situation became very apparent to him in that moment.

_"Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine,"_

Flynn could see every ceiling beam above him. He could see Rapunzel by the table, with her glowing hair draped over the chest of the corpse, tears rolling down her cheeks.

He didn't realize until then how much he'd hoped that he'd been imagining things, or having some sort of strange lucid dream. It brought to light too many questions with impossible answers. Why did her hair glow? How did she know the corpse was a woman?

He hadn't mentioned it to her and she'd asked where _she_ was.

What was she even doing down here in the first place? Why was she covered in dust and so still the first time he saw her?

He decided the best course of action was to ignore the impossibility of everything impossible thing that had happened. He would get out of this hole, away from the Stabbington brothers, and his life would go back to the way it was before.

_And where does that leave Rapunzel?_ Asked a voice in Flynn's head.

He was shaken from his reverie by the light of the hair fading, and everything receding back into darkness once more.

The quiet sobbing had stopped.

"Rapunzel?" Flynn called out uncertainly.

He shined the flashlight towards the table.

He could just make out the deep red hem of the corpse's dress, but no more Rapunzel, or glowing hair.

He heard a sniff, and turned around.

She was standing on the lowest ceiling beam far above him, frying pan under one arm with her hair wound like a lasso under the other.

"Let's go Flynn Rider."

**Please review if you think I should continue :) **

**Thanks for reading!**


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